So recently I picked up a new hobby.
A couple years ago, I was invited to go duck hunting,
having never been duck hunting before.
And I got hooked and I got hooked bad.
And so when I got invited, I went down into my basement and
I, you know, looked at all the guns that I've been, you know,
received from grandparents over the years because I've never,
you know, purchased one. And all of my guns were
right-handed, and I shoot left-handed.
And what that means is that when you're trying to, and this is
important when you're duck hunting aim, when you're trying
to do that, the shells are going across your face.
And so that's been, you know, a bit of a challenge.
And then one of the blinds that we go to is in about 16 inches
of water. And I have some muck boots that
are about 17 inches tall. The problem is my the pounds per
square inch can sometimes, depending on what's underneath
me, can move the ground beneath me by more than it, which it's
just this is where my boots went.
And this is where the water. Do we get that?
That's what we had. I was walking by faith.
OK well this year something special happened.
I was walking out of church one day and the guy said hey can you
meet me over at game Masters? And I said sure.
Walked over and there sitting on the counter waiting for me was a
left-handed shotgun. And I can't tell you how awesome
that makes me. It doesn't make me saved, but it
does make me awesome. Then I was telling somebody
about how now I've got my own gun, I'm not shooting somebody
else's. Well, that group of people saw
my challenges in the waiter game because I couldn't find any
waiters that would allow me to go waiting.
Well, they found them and so next thing I know I have Clayton
size waiters and I have a Clayton specific gun.
Like I said, it doesn't make me saved, but you are looking at an
awesome person, a very, very awesome person now.
And because of these two gifts, I am now able to go where I
couldn't go before and do what I could not do before.
And every single one of you, you need to realize you are looking
at the same dude you've always looked at.
But because of these gifts that I have been given, I am
different. I'm able to go places I could
not go before and do what I could not do before.
And to those of you who have come into an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, you have been given gifts that
allow you to go places you could not go before and do things you
could not do before. I want to welcome all of our
different locations, those of you watching online and inside,
and a special welcome to those of you who are here for the
first time or the first time in a long time.
I hope that you will swing by the new here booth in all of our
lobbies before the service is over.
Turn to your neighbor or type in the chat and say you're looking
at a gifted person. Turn to your second favorite
neighbor and say really, really gifted.
First Corinthians chapter 12 verses one through 31.
It's a long pole. Let's get into it now about the
gifts of the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, I do not
want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were
pagans, pagans, or anybody who doesn't believe in Jesus,
somehow or other you were influenced and LED astray to
mute idols. Therefore I want you to know
that no one who was speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus be
cursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy
Spirit. There are different kinds of
gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and
in everyone it is the same God at work.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is
given for the common good. To one there is given through
the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of
knowledge by means of the same spirit, to another faith by the
same spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one spirit, to
another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another
distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different
kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of
tongues. All of these are the work of 1
and the same Spirit. And He distributes to each one
just as he determines. Just as a body, though one has
many parts, but all its many parts form 1 body, so it is with
Christ. For we were all baptized by 1
Spirit so as to form 1 body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave
or free, and we were all given 1 Spirit to drink.
Even so, the body is not made-up of one part, but of many.
Now if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do
not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being
part of the body. And if the ear should say,
because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not
for that reason stop being part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing
be? If the whole body were an ear,
where would the sense of smell be?
But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of
them, just as He wanted them to be.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand I don't need you, and the head
cannot say to the feet I don't need you.
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker
are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable
we treat with special honor, and the parts that are unpresentable
we treat with special modesty, while our presentable parts need
no special treatment. But God has put the body
together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it.
So there should be no division in the body, but that it's part
should have equal concern for each other.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.
If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of
it. And God is placed in the
churches, first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers,
then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of
guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
Are all apostles Are all prophets?
Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues?
Do all interpret now eagerly desire the greater gifts?
Paul writes this section of scripture trying to help the
church in Corinth as they navigate 2 major issues.
The very first challenge that they are facing is that they are
a divided church. They don't get along.
There's all kinds of quarrelling and fighting, and a divided
church will never make the impact that a United Church can
make for the Kingdom of God. And what a divided world needs
to see and what a divided world needs to feel is the power of a
United Church. And the second issue that
they're navigating is that they're trying to make a Kingdom
impact in a wildly Pagan culture.
And so Paul, in this part of Scripture that we call First
Corinthians chapter 12, reminds them now about the gifts of the
Spirit. Brothers and sisters, I do not
want you to be say that next word uninformed.
He is addressing an ignorance in their midst about the gifts of
the Spirit. These are gifts that are given
to people when they receive the Holy Spirit that enable them to
bring glory to God, advance the mission of God, and bring people
into an intimate personal relationship with God through
the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
And he is also at the same time, while he's informing them
because he doesn't want them to be uninformed, He's going to 0
in on their unity and the need of it.
So he begins by talking about gifts, and one of the things
that Paul brings up about the gifts is their origin.
He talks to them about gift origin.
Look what it says in verses 4:00 and 5:00.
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit
distributes them. There are different kinds of
service, but the same Lord. In other words, the gifts that
you and I have, they did not come from you.
They did not come from me. These are gifts that we
received. They did not originate with us.
The gifts that you and I have originated with Him.
I'll show you in just a second why that matters.
The second gift or second thing he talks about gift is gift
placement. Look what it says in verse 11.
All these are the work of 1 and same and the same Spirit.
He distributes them to each one just as he determined.
That means that not only does the gift that you have, did it
not come from you, but you did not pick your gift.
You were given your gift. What this means for you ladies
is that you did not go to the gift mall and go, oh, I like
that one. It means that if you wanted a
particular gift but you didn't get it, it was because you
couldn't afford it. And so you had to buy the knock
off fake version of the real thing that you actually wanted.
So you look to other people like you could afford the thing that
you don't actually have. It's like that's not how it
happened either. It means that when you showed
up, they didn't have to worry about whether or not they had
this gift in your size or not, whether it was on sale or not.
No, the gift that you have, you didn't pick out.
It was given specifically for you.
That means that these gifts that originated with God, there are
no knock offs, there are no value brands.
He picked it out and He placed it in you.
So far you have had this much to do with your gifting.
He made it, not you. He placed it.
You didn't pick it out. And then he talks about gift
design. These gifts that you and I have
been given, they are powered by God for the good of others, to
be used alongside others. What it says in First
Corinthians chapter 12, verse 6 is this.
There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and
in everyone, it is the same God at work.
In other words, a spirit given gift is to be is designed to be
used by spiritual people to do spiritual things through the
power of the Holy Spirit. Every single one of you.
When you guys buy a car, your car either runs on diesel, gas,
or grid. It's one of those three things
that your vehicle runs on. The gifts that you have received
require God to be the one doing the work.
Your gifts are not powered by you, they are powered by Him.
And so trying to do spiritual things without the Spirit's
power is a disaster. And wanting to do spiritual
things without spiritual power is dangerous.
The Spirit's power shows up in our lives most times outside of
your comfort zone. Sometimes you've heard me talk
about this. Sometimes people go I don't feel
God or I don't see him working anymore.
That's because you don't need the spirits power to be
spiritually lazy. You don't need the spirits power
to operate in your comfort zone. If you read through the book of
Acts, you'll hear them say we are praying for boldness.
Boldness requires you to be outside of your comfort zone.
And when these people would step out of their comfort zone, the
Holy Spirit would show up in a mighty and powerful way.
You don't need the Spirit's power to live a life of sin.
You don't need the Spirit's power to be a bad example of
Christ in your home. But you do need the power of the
Holy Spirit to be the person that God has called you to be in
your workplace and in your home. So if you are not sensing or
feeling the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, there is a
high probability that you are not doing anything that requires
His presence. And if you don't need His
presence, you certainly don't need His power.
You want to feel the power of God flowing through you and
through your gifting. All you have to do is start
doing something for the Kingdom of God.
The gift that you have is designed to run on the power of
God, and it is designed for the good of others.
Verse 7 says. Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
In other words, your gift is not for you, but for those around
you. Remember that Jesus said that
the greatest among you will be your servant.
Our gifts are not for our own glory, but for the Kingdom good.
It's how we do the first and second greatest commandment.
First greatest commandments, love God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength. Second greatest commandments,
love your neighbor as yourself. In order to do those things,
love God well and love others well, you're going to need the
power of the Holy Spirit. And there's a gifting that He
has placed in you to help you accomplish it.
The next thing He says is that your gift is designed to be used
alongside others. Every time I pick one of these
up, you can tell by the way that it is that it is designed to go
with something else, to work with something else.
Verse 12 says just as a body, though one has many parts, but
all its many parts form 1 body, so it is with Christ.
Your gift by itself is not enough, no matter how much you
may want it to be and no matter how much all the other gifts may
frustrate you. The gift that God has given you
is not enough unless it is surrounded and alongside other
gifts. This is part of the reason why
you cannot live the Christian life in isolation.
That's why over and over again, the Bible tells us and commands
us to do certain things for and with our brothers and sisters in
Christ. The problem is any time you get
a group of people together with different kinds of giftings,
there is a risk for disunity. You want to know why sometimes
there's problems in your home, problems in your workplace,
because a bunch of different people with different kinds of
gifts have a hard time operating in unity.
And Paul lays out three major problems when it comes to the
unity of our gifting envy, projection and rejection.
Gift envy, gift projection and gift rejection.
Check out gift envy. Gift envy looks at their own
gift and then they go, I don't like my gift.
I wish I had somebody else's gift.
I mean, of all of the different gifts we've put up here so far,
this one's just so much tinier than everybody else's.
It's not as cool as everybody else's.
I wish I didn't have the gift that God gave me.
I wish I had somebody else's gift.
Verse 15 and 16. Now if the foot should say
because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would
not for that reason stop being part of the body.
And if the ears should say because I'm not an eye, I do not
belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part
of the body. Your attitude devalues your gift
and it will diminish your participation and it will cut
off your ministry impact. If your gift is missing, all the
parts of the body suffers. Imagine here you are being the
ear and you're going, why did God make me an ear?
Everybody loves the eyes. Nobody has ever been on a date.
And then later on telling the story about what was the date
like? No guy has ever said, well, I
got to be honest with you. We're sitting there eating a
nice meal, having a great conversation.
I was kind of on the fence, but then she went like this and I
saw those lobes and I said to myself, I want to look into
those lobes for the rest of my life.
Nobody's ever said when you're like, doing a quiz about your
wife, what's their lobe shape? But if I were to ask you what
color her eyes are, you know it. Everybody remembers the colors
of the eyes. Now, flip side, here's the ear
going hey, nobody. Nobody's paying attention to me.
I don't get the same kind of feedback that the eyes do.
I don't want to be a part of the body no more.
However, if you want to say sweet things to her, eyes aren't
all that helpful. You're going to want to make
sure that she has ears to hear it.
Ladies, let me, for those of you who are young, let me just give
you some help real quick at all of our locations, if you have
thought about your back this week, raise your hand.
OK, there, there's some of you being honest.
Those of you who didn't raise your hand don't know what I'm
about to talk about. But those of us who did raise
their hand, we know that back problems are a real thing.
And if I were to go back in time and God were to make me not a
dude, and God were to make me a girl, and I was going to try and
figure somebody to marry, the number one thing I'd look for
is, are there back problems in their family tree?
That's the number one. Because a guy with back problems
is going to end up spending the rest of his life on a lazy boy
recliner sleeping there because he can't get up.
Early in Jennifer Knight's marriage, my back went out.
Like early in our marriage. And I had made it to the
bathroom and I had sat down and it was at that moment that I
realized that was as far as I was going to be able to take
this journey so young. And now I am 6 foot 6 and a lot,
and my wife is 5/3 and 1/3 of a lot.
And so I am early in my marriage, You know, think about
how romantic this is. Hey, babe.
So my wife has to come in and help lift me off of a toilet.
Oh, yeah. Oh, see, something to look
forward to now. You're going to.
Yeah. I think I am going to look for
back problems. In fact, when I meet her dad,
I'm just going to punch him in the back and see how he
responds. Smart.
Very, very smart because you don't realize how important your
back is until you decide to do something with a bad back.
You can't tie your shoes with a bad back.
You use your back for everything.
You can't brush your teeth if you have a bad back.
You can't open a car door. You can't turn around and flush
if you have a bad back. You can't wipe if you have a.
All of a sudden people are going.
I really need to start looking in this back stuff.
Listen, back stuff doesn't kill you.
Hard stuff will. If you're going, I want out of
this, find the guy with the high cholesterol, but the decent
back, because the guy with the decent back is going to live
forever. He's just going to drink
Mountain Dew and sit on the couch.
Like, I can't get rid of this guy.
Look for the back stuff. If the back leaves now, nobody,
nobody in the summer is taking Instagram summer vacation photos
with the back. Oh, no, they're not.
Seriously, take a picture, take a picture in my back.
All the girls all they care about is the six pack in the
front. You need to be worried about the
backpack in the back because 6 packs 100% disappear backs.
They last forever until they don't.
And the back might be going. Nobody cares about me.
Nobody gives me the kind of praise that everything else
gets. But did you know that the back
is holding absolutely everything together?
You might look at your gift and go, Nobody cares about my gift
like they care about every other gift.
But if you were to pull your gift out of the equation, the
body of Christ would not be what it is supposed to be.
Nobody realizes how important their big toe is until you break
it and you're like one toe. And now I can't walk.
Second issue, Gift projection. Gift projection.
This is where, Oh my goodness, if you want to know which one I
struggle with, this is it. Gift projection.
For those of you who have ever said why can't more people be
like me? You struggle with gift
projection. Why can't more people in my
family think like me? How come more people don't vote
like me? How come you, no matter where
you are in the world, there are moments in time situations where
you're going. Why is this so hard for you?
I'll tell you why. Because you are operating in
your gifting and when you are operating in your gifting,
things make complete sense. But somebody else does not have
the same gifting that you have, and so there's going to be
frustration. Look what it says in verse 17
through 20. If the whole body were an eye,
where would the sense of hearing be?
If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell
be? But in fact, God has placed the
parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to
be. If they were all one part, where
would the body be? As it is, there are many parts
but one body. If everybody had the same gift
as you watch this, your gift would be diminished and the body
of Christ would become useless. This is the challenge that you
have in your marriage. You and your wife are having to
go through a particular season, a particular circumstance with a
particular kid, and both of you are approaching the issue from
your gifting. And the argument that you are
having is about which gift wins. And because there's not unity,
watch this, your kid is robbed of both gifts.
This happens at work real quick. How many of you at all of our
different locations, you work on the factory floor and sometimes
you get frustrated with the people in management or in
corporate. Raise your hands.
Nobody's being honest because their boss started to come to
church. I get it.
OK. OK.
How many of you who work in the C-Suite or work for corporate or
in the management office sometimes get frustrated with
the people on the floor? Those people are more honest,
more job security, I'm guessing. OK, the reason why is is the
people on the floor see things differently and the people in
the management office see things differently.
They don't see them wrong, they see them in their gifting.
So what happens is if your factory was all welders, lots
would get made, no one would get paid because there's nobody
upstairs in the air conditioned office.
If the entire office was accountants and the payroll
department, nothing would get made and nobody would get paid
because nothing got made. So what you actually need is you
need everybody showing up with their giftings and working hard
to work in Unity. Gift rejection is the next one
that Paul brings up. Gift rejection says I don't need
other gifts. First Corinthians chapter 12
verse 21 the I cannot say to the hand I don't need you, and the
head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
But God has put the body together so that there should be
no division in the body, but that it's parts should have
equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part
suffers with it. If one part is honored, every
part rejoices with it. What a prideful position to
think that you are enough, that your gift is enough, that you
and your gifting can be the full expression of the power of God
to accomplish His mission. You see, we need every gift on
full display if we are going to make this region the hardest
place on planet earth to get the hell from.
Why does this matter? Because if you don't acknowledge
your gift, use your gift. Make sure that your gift is
powered by the Holy Spirit. The body of Christ will never be
what it's supposed to be because it will be missing you.
Paul says in first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 27.
He says now each one of you are the body of Christ.
Each one of you is a part of it. When you and I, every single one
of us, bring our gifts together and do the hard work of
operating in unity with all of our gifts on full display
through the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the mission
of the Holy Spirit, we present the most accurate expression of
Jesus in our region. And without you, our expression
of Jesus in this region is incomplete.
When God made you and when you came into relationship with him,
He put his Spirit inside of you and a gift inside of you.
And right now, if you were to ask me, what does our world and
what does our region need? It needs a more beautiful and
powerful picture and expression of Jesus and it will never
happen unless 1 you are part of it and two, we figure out how to
operate in unity with it. I hope you'll think about that.
We're moving to a time of decision.
To those of you that are in here or watching online that have
never started an intimate personal relationship with you,
everything I just talked about is about the gifting that you
received from the Holy Spirit. Now you receive the Holy Spirit
after you come into an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. So right now, so far in the
message, you haven't heard anything about a gift for you.
But I've got really good news. When Jesus shows up, He gives
gifts to everybody. And so can I tell you about the
gift that He wants to give you today because there is a gift
and it is a special gift, a life changing gift, and the gift is
the gift of salvation. Romans chapter 623 lays out a
beautiful picture. It says the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Hear me wages, sin, death.
The gift of Jesus Christ is eternal life with God.
There are two paths that He's put in front of us, and you get
to pick the path. 1 is where you get to keep doing whatever you
want to do, however you want to do it, and there's a price tag
over you doing whatever you want to do.
You're going to sin and the payment for those sins is that
somebody has to die. Or you could say I don't want to
live the way I've been wanting to live and do what I've been
doing. I don't want to have to pay the
price for the things that I've done, and I don't want to
experience and suffer death and separation from God.
So on behalf of us and because of His love for us, God offers
us a way out. And it's the exact opposite of
everything He just laid out. Instead of wages, something you
earned, He shows up with a gift, something you did not deserve.
And what is contained in this gift?
The opposite of sin, Jesus. And what do you get?
The opposite of death, you get eternal life.
Jesus shows up and he says, look man, you can choose, you can
choose wages, death and sin, or you can choose gift, Jesus and
eternal life. Which one do you want?
And for me, that was an easy answer.
That was like the Staples easy button where like the only thing
I wanted was all of them. That was easy.
I just wanted him. So hear me.
When you come into a relationship with Jesus Christ,
it is a gift that he gives to you.
The question is whether or not you will receive it.
You can earn it, but the only one thing that you will ever
earn is you will earn your way into hell or you can receive the
gift that we did not deserve, that we did not earn, that was
given to us in Jesus Christ on the cross.
Somebody has to die. And for the Christian, it's not
us, it was him. The wages of sin is death.
And the good news is, is that somebody did die.
He died on our behalf. He died in our place.
And so if you're here today and you've never started an intimate
personal relationship with Jesus Christ, do not put it off any
longer. Through the power of the Holy
Spirit today, say yes. Say I'm ready to live for him
right now. In just a few moments, the
people around you are going to stand and sing and people are
going to come to the steps and pray.
And I'm hoping that some of you, we'll either turn to the person
that brought you, the person that you're sitting next to, or
walk right over there underneath that screen, next to the Baptist
screen and say today's my day. I've been putting it off for way
too long. To the rest of you in this room,
to those of you who already have our relationship with Jesus
Christ, hear me. This region needs you.
The mission of God in this region is too big and too great
for it to miss out on your participation.
The people in this region need to know that there are people
who are serious about helping people find an intimate,
personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And so maybe today you haven't been using your gift the way you
were supposed to use your gift because you've been too upset at
God for the gift that he gave you.
Maybe today you need to repent for being frustrated to how you
see God use other people instead of letting God use you.
Maybe you need to realize that you haven't been using your gift
at all and it's time for you to get in the game and go how can I
make a difference? Maybe some of you, your pride
has kept you from seeing the value of other people's gifts
and you need to spend some time repenting and saying, God help
me to just be thankful for what you've given me and work well
with the people that you've put in my life.
I am all the way sold out unapologetically that we are
going to make this region the hardest place on planet earth to
get the help from. I hope you'll join me.
Would you stand with me? God, I thank you so much for
this church, for this season of ministry.
And God, we need this moment right here.
We needed to re clarify our purpose.
We need a chance to recommit to the mission and God, we don't
need it for just us and for the people in this room, but for all
the people that aren't here and all the people that don't know
you. So God in faith, I'm coming to
you and I'm asking that you would make it abundantly clear
for every person in this room what it is that you want us to
do and God that you'd give us the courage to do.
In your name I pray. Amen.